What is Omni-Channel?
Omni-channel is a multi-channel approach to sales that aims to provide a seamless shopping experience to their customers across all platforms. To ensure continuity, businesses with an omni-channel platform usually have integrated promotion, distribution, and communication channels. These platforms can range from online stores to brick-and-mortar shops.
Significance of Omni-channel in E-commerce
With an omni-channel approach, e-commerce businesses can provide their shoppers with a continual experience, no matter how they interact with the said businesses. Some key benefits of omni-channel are:
- Better customer experience: Omni-channel strategies provide customers with an integrated shopping experience. Since all the platforms of a brand are seamlessly tied together, customers will be able to interact with the brand more easily and remain loyal to the business.
- Higher profits: Buyers tend to spend more on omni-channel e-commerce than single-channel businesses. Furthermore, omni-channel businesses also positively influence purchase rates. Both of these combine to give a higher profit margin.
Prerequisites for Omni-channel and How It Works
The different prerequisites and steps in omni-channel are as follows:
- Knowing customers: The first step in building the perfect omni-channel strategy is getting to know your customers. You can do this through surveys, feedback forms, and so on.
- Selecting and assigning channels: Once you know your customers, you can narrow them down to the channel they use most often. Subsequently, these channels can be assigned specific functions, like news updates, interaction, etc.
- Connecting multiple channels: You must use the right technology to integrate all your multiple channels on a unified platform.
- Testing and updating: Like any other sales and marketing strategy, even the omni-channel strategy must be constantly tested and updated for the best outcome.
Use Case With Omni-channel
For example, a company named ABC uses an omni-channel model. Therefore, customers can check out the store’s inventory using their desktop, make a purchase using their mobile phone, and subsequently pick up their purchased product from the company’s brick-and-mortar store. In this way, ABC provides a seamless and well-connected shopping experience through an omni-channel strategy.